Brent Boyles, president and CEO of Maine Public Service, said the northern Maine transmission line upgrade is tied to Horizon Wind Energy's proposed development of up to 800 megawatts of wind energy in The County. That proposal, which would comprise several separate projects, would transform the landscape of Aroostook County with 400 wind turbines - each standing roughly 400 feet tall - dotting farm fields and hillsides. A subsidiary of Horizon Wind, Aroostook Wind Energy, has been busy lining up willing landowners, but opposition to the unprecedented project is brewing. Boyles said the two transmission line projects, combined with Horizon Wind's proposal, would generate thousands of construction jobs and funnel tens of millions of dollars into municipal coffers.

Two utilities on Tuesday proposed $1.9 billion worth of electric infrastructure improvements to ensure reliability of the existing power grid as well as to connect northern Maine to the New England power grid for the first time. ...A study has indicated that the existing power grid serving CMP customers will no longer operate reliably beyond 2012 without the improvements, Burns said. Meanwhile, residents of northern Maine have not enjoyed the potential fruits of electric deregulation because Maine Public Service Co. is not connected to the rest of the New England power grid.

First Wind's Stetson Mountain project is unnecessarily creating congestion on Maine's New England power grid transmission lines, thanks to state policymakers' rush to create more wind energy in the state, an anti-wind energy group's leader charged Sunday. ..."Through discussions with the state PUC [Public Utilities Commission] we were able to learn that our transmission rights weren't going to be jeopardized," Stetson said. "In layman's terms, they [First Wind] were going to have to take a back seat to our transmission needs."

About 70 people attended Independence Wind LLC's presentation Tuesday night at the Roxbury town office on new information about their proposed Record Hill Wind wind-power project. By 8:30 p.m. - two-hours into the presentation - the meeting was still going on, with Resource Systems Engineering founder and president, engineer Charles F. Wallace Jr. answering questions about perceived noise problems from a project that has yet to be built. Record Hill Wind principals have yet to even choose a wind turbine model, several of which will be placed atop Record Hill in Roxbury if residents in the future OK a land-use ordinance change permitting wind power facilities.

"After we completed our due diligence, we got the green light from the investors that the project was a go to the next [permitting] stage," Tudan said Thursday, "but when we went to register the site with ISO-New England, we were told that the Stetson Mountain wind farm project had registered before us and that had maxed out any available access to the [grid] at this time." ..."There's no bitter tears here toward First Wind about it," Tudan said. "That's the marketplace, though I feel very bad about how it went because we had a beautiful project."

A year later than the last decision, and by exactly the same margin, residents have voted to reject a commercial development review ordinance that could have hampered plans to build three wind turbines on Beaver Ridge. First Selectwoman Carol Richardson reported that Tuesday's vote was 117 for the ordinance, 164 against. Last year, residents voted against the measure by a 159-112 vote. ...Opponents of the turbines have warned that they will disrupt a rural way of life. The turbines are noisy, and people living near them have reported sleep disruption, dizziness, ringing in the ears and problems concentrating.

As many as 35 electricity-generating windmills might be built in town by a Massachusetts firm that plans to meet with the Town Council later this month to discuss its plans. Evergreen Wind Power LLC, a subsidiary of UPC Wind of Massachusetts, will meet with the Town Council on June 16, Town Council Chairman Steve Clay and interim Town Manager Lisa Goodwin said. "They are coming to announce their intentions in this area," Clay said of the project. "It could mean a lot."

Regarding the wind power moratorium ordinance, Concerned Citizens to Save Roxbury submitted a petition bearing 89 signatures to selectmen three weeks after Roxbury town meeting voters passed a zoning amendment permitting wind turbines along the town's prominent ridgelines. Selectmen accepted the petition, which CCSR founder Linda Kuras said on Friday was filed following procedural irregularities surrounding the vote and inherent problems with the zoning amendment....Kuras' group will convene a public information forum starting at 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 14 - three days prior to the special town meeting - to educate people about wind power and its ramifications to Roxbury.

Construction is underway on a ten million dollar wind farm in Freedom... Though the project was already approved by the town, some residents think there should be ground rules in place before the turbines start turning. Jeff Keating is one of the residents pushing the town to adopt an ordinance that would impose restrictions on the wind farm project. The biggest concerns being noise and the effect on property values.

One of the largest wind farms in the country will soon be climbing above the horizon in central Benton County. The Fowler Ridge Wind Farm project is a partnership between BP Alternative Energy and Dominion, one of the nation's largest energy companies. The first phase will feature 222 windmills, generating 400 megawatts of power. They will join the 87 windmills already operating in the western portion of Benton County, which was a joint venture between Orion Energy and Vision Energy, LLC.

Ten people who own land near the proposed $12 million wind power project on Beaver Ridge have asked Waldo County Superior Court to rule that portions of three roads leading to the site are privately owned. The roads in question include Sibley Road Extension (also known as Clark Road), Beaver Ridge Road (also known as Beaver Hill Road), and Deer Hill Road (also known as Deer Hill Lane). It is believed that developer Beaver Ridge Wind LLC needs to use one of the three roads to bring equipment onto the proposed windmill site, and to erect a power line that will feed electricity generated there into the regional power grid. ..."Portions of all three of the roads were discontinued or abandoned," said Steve Bennett, who has led the fight against the windmills.

Two lawsuits that could affect the wind turbine project have been brought against the town, weeks before residents will be asked to vote for a third time on the commercial development review ordinance that was repealed last year. In addition to the lawsuits, Jeff Keating started a petition to put the re-enactment of the commercial development review ordinance on the ballot for upcoming elections. According to Town Clerk Cindy Abbott, Keating turned in a petition containing 38 signatures.

The town's energy committee wants a little more time and information before it makes any recommendations to the Town Council about how to proceed with plans for municipal wind power. The committee has been studying two proposals for wind turbines in town and had been scheduled to make a recommendation to the council last week. "The committee didn't want to make any decisions until they went to see the two facilities in Saco," Town Manager Roger Raymond said Tuesday. The two wind turbines in Saco are similar to the two the committee has been researching for the town, Raymond said.

Chairman Kurt Adams of the Maine Public Utilities Commission is stepping down to work for a national wind development company. Adams will leave the state's utility regulatory panel on May 16. He's to become senior vice president for transmission development at First Wind, formerly UPC Wind.

Construction could begin on the $270 million Kibby Wind Power project in August, assuming the economics fall into place, the developer said. Half of the 44-turbine plan could be completed by the fall of 2009. The other half of the Franklin County project should be done in the summer of 2010, said Nick Di Domenico, of TransCanada, director of the Kibby project. But while the development appears likely to move ahead, both TransCanada and state officials say wind power faces plenty of short-term challenges even as the longer term future remains bright. ...The high cost of construction and the volatility of energy costs is what makes the long-term viability of a project a difficult thing to predict.

As governor, Angus King liked to pitch a big idea, like giving laptop computers to all seventh-graders. Now, as a wind energy entrepreneur, he's floating a whopper. King said Tuesday that the state should launch a massive research and development effort to create a $15 billion network of offshore wind turbines in the Gulf of Maine over the next 10 years. Only something as ambitious as 1,000 turbines spinning 26 miles off the Maine coast will be able to break the state's reliance on oil and prevent an economic catastrophe, he said.

The Maine Power Connection, as it is called, could allow Aroostook County to become a renewable energy center for Maine and the rest of New England, Maine Public Service CEO Brent Boyles said in a telephone interview Friday. The Maine Public Service system now is separated by a 25-mile gap between its lines in Houlton and the Maine Electric Power Co. line that travels from Haynesville to southern and central Maine. Maine Public Service has transmission requests for more than 800 megawatts of potential wind generation projects. Connecting Maine Public Service to the New England grid with a 345-kilovolt transmission line would support those projects, Boyles said. ...But the Maine Power Connection was not developed initially to accommodate wind power. Instead, it was proposed as a possible solution to the lack of electricity generation competition in northern Maine, Boyles said. ...Maine Public Service also is analyzing the feasibility of a third 345-kilovolt transmission line to eastern Canada. ...The Maine Power Connection project relies heavily on the support of ISO-New England and its member utilities. If ISO-New England believes a project will enhance electric power reliability, then it allows the cost of the project to be divided among ratepayers. But if Maine pulls out of ISO-New England, Boyles said the project will be difficult to fund.

The goal is not only to link Maine Public Service with the regional power grid but also to provide capacity for proposed wind power projects totaling 800 megawatts, five times Maine Public Service's existing load. Aroostook's existing 42-megawatt wind power project on Mars Hill sends its electricity to Canada. The northern Maine power grid's isolation has been a barrier to competition. In December 2006, the Maine Public Utilities Commission's standard offer solicitation attracted only one bidder. ...The line, between 150 and 200 miles long, would cost between $400 million and $500 million, but it would be economically feasible with the participation of ISO-New England and its member utilities, officials said.

A Texas company is courting Aroostook County landowners as it moves forward with plans for several large wind farms that could transform the landscape in some areas of northern Maine. Horizon Wind Energy's long-term plan envisions up to 400 turbines spinning in the farm fields and forests of Aroostook County. Company officials say they are focusing on a forested area west of Bridgewater. But Horizon officials are keeping mum on additional locations, adding only that most are agricultural or forested sites in eastern Aroostook County. ...Horizon, which is also operating locally under the subsidiary name Aroostook Wind Energy, has been quietly working on the project since 2005. ...Dawe said Horizon has received positive feedback from many landowners but that the company strives to be upfront and open about the project. "A wind power project is a large undertaking," he said. "Turbines are neither silent nor invisible."

In their "Selectors Letter" in the town report, selectmen argued: "The budget committee has increased the legal services request in our administrative budget to $25,000 due to renewed legal challenges to the town over the windmill project on Beaver Ridge. Three lawsuits are now pending against the town by anti-windmill group (sic). One is over the status of the Sibley Road, one over the status of the building permit, and one over the Selectors' refusal to accept a petition to re-enact the Commercial Ordinance. The town has voted on the windmill issue three times now and enough is enough." The letter states that legal battles over this issue in the past have cost the town more than $8,600 in legal fees. That letter drew fire at town meeting from members of the Beaver Hill Landowners' Association, which distributed a letter of its own to residents before the meeting. The letter accuses the selectmen of making false statements, chiefly that there are three lawsuits pending against the town by the anti-windmill group. "In reality, there are no lawsuits pending with regard to either the status of the building permit or the Selectors' refusal to accept a petition to re-enact the Commercial Ordinance," the letter states. "We have only one request before the Court, to clarify the status of the last 1,000 feet of the Sibley Road, which, like many other roads, was discontinued by a town vote... We are not asking for money or damages from anyone in this request."